HELP!!!!!!!

What were we thinking?

R and I rode the bike race course today..well, actually we only rode it one time around and that about killed us, so I'm pretty freaked out about this.
Who in the world made a course with all these hills????
In Hawaii at the Ironman triathlon, it may be really hot,
but it's flat, so what's up with this?

So here's what the bike course consists of:
Ride 3 miles to the 25-mi circle
Ride the 25-mi circle two times
Ride 3 miles back to the transition area.....all this equals 56 miles.

Well, today Rick and rode the 3 miles out and back and then the 25 mi circle once and then got lost on the course for 6 miles and 2 additional hills, which totaled 41 miles and I'm telling you -
I AM CONCERNED!!!!

There are so many hills....really, too many hills. I used my GPS trainer and most of the hills are a 7-9% grade, but there is one at the end of the first 25-mile circle that is a 15% grade AND the last one is a 20% grade. I seriously almost started crying while riding up that hill. It was so hard.

Rick's gears are messed up for some reason, so he couldn't even use the highest 3 gears, so he was powering up all the hills. He is much faster than I am so he would make it up the hill and then wait for me. And, I was about to keel over after the last two hills and in the race we have to go around AGAIN and do those 2 extreme hills twice!!!! Yikes!

To finish the day, Rick had to go right to the gym after our 41-mile trip and run 8 miles on the treadmill.
Can anyone tell us what we were thinking when we had this idea????